Lalo Guerrero, 88

Folk legend, father of Chicano music

March 20, 2005|By Los Angeles Times.

Lalo Guerrero, the pioneering barrio troubadour whose bilingual repertoire spanned a vast variety of Mexican and American genres over seven decades and earned him worldwide accolades as the father of Chicano music, died Thursday. He was 88.

Mr. Guerrero, who was suffering from prostate cancer, increasing frailty and memory loss, died at a nursing home in Palm Springs, Calif. The exact cause of death was not immediately known, relatives said.

The son of blue-collar Mexican immigrants, Mr. Guerrero was a self-styled folk musician who made up for lack of formal training with his witty knack for capturing the everyday joys, sorrows and absurdities of Mexican-American life, largely ignored by mainstream pop music. His songs were so emblematic of the bicultural experience during World War II that they were featured in 1977's "Zoot Suit," the stage and film musical that dramatized, to Mr. Guerrero's swing-time beat, the persecution and survival spirit of the so-called pachucos.

"The play would not have been possible without his music," said writer and director Luis Valdez, Mr. Guerrero's nephew. "So many focus on the negative side, but what Lalo captured was the joy of the pachuco experience . . . which no one else had done."

Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, Jr., was born on Christmas Eve, 1916, in Tucson's Barrio Viejo, one of 24 siblings, only eight of whom survived to adulthood. His father worked on the railroads, and his mother taught him to sing and play guitar.

He was still a teenager when he wrote "Cancion Mexicana," the first of hundreds of songs recorded on various labels since the 1930s. He was able to compose and sing in an array of styles, from traditional boleros and corridos, to upbeat mambos and boogie-woogies.

Perhaps his best known composition is the 1955 hit "Pancho Lopez," a parody of "Davy Crockett." The singer used his royalties to open an east Los Angeles nightclub, Lalo's, which became a popular venue for the best bands from Latin America for the next 15 years.

In 1995, the rock band Los Lobos invited Mr. Guerrero to join them on the bilingual children's album "Papa's Dream," which earned a Grammy nomination.

Mr. Guerrero kept working almost to the end. In 1997, he became the first Chicano to receive the National Medal of Arts, awarded by President Bill Clinton.

A television documentary about the late singer, "Lalo Guerrero: The Original Chicano," is being co-produced by his son, Dan, and filmmaker Nancy de Los Santos.